Contact: Melanie Alford
A Perkinston student's love of horses, flair for invention and public speaking ability have combined to earn her national recognition from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Paula J. Runge, a 19-year-old sophomore mechanical engineering major at Mississippi State University, recently took fourth-place honors among a field composed mostly of senior engineering majors at ASME's national student competition in Nashville. Her presentation on a new type of baling twine she invented earlier won the organization's Southeastern regional public speaking competition.
Accompanied by Power Point software illustrations, her 15-minute address to a four-judge panel and an audience of competition participants explained the twine's creation and its potential uses.
Runge credits much of her success to a love of horses and the desire to protect them from potential dangers posed by conventional twines used to bind hay bales. As an avid competitor in horse shows, she knew that ingested plastic or wire twines could lodge in an animal's digestive tracts.
Her solution: Use hay itself to weave twine, a process for which she currently is seeking a patent.
"This is a new generation of baling twine," Runge said of her product. "The key is the use of hay to weave twine that can be used instead of plastic or wire."
Runge uses three different types of hay for the all-natural twine--Alesia Bermuda, orchard grass and alfalfa. She also experimented with different weaves--weft braid, a simple twist of the hay; tabby weave, a plain braid; and satin weave, three plaits braided together.
"I ran tests to discover how much weight the twine can hold, how many minutes it takes for the twine to fray, a durability test, and an overall support test," she explained.
Runge found that one strand of her hay twine holds 74 pounds; two twines, about 130. A common rectangular bale of hay usually weights between 35 and 55 pounds.
In addition to rectangular shapes, Runge said the process applies to large round bales.
"The same process can be used to weave the nets that hold the large bales," she said. This is especially important when feeding horses, she added.
"Horses can get a leg caught in the net," she said. "With my twine, a horse will eat the hay first, then the net, with nothing left over."
Runge, who has a strong interest in design engineering, also is developing a mechanical adapter that will allow the all-natural twine to be used on hay balers.
"People learned to weave thousands of years ago with grass and thin strips of wood," she said. "This process takes us into the 21st century, a time when environmental concerns will change the way we farm."
A participant in the MSU Cooperative Education Program, Runge is spending the spring semester at her job at the Chevron Corp. refinery complex in Pascagoula. She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Runge.